This afternoons wedding is the perfect antidote for those of you who still have racing pulses after this mornings frank and intimate discussions. Prepare for the W-day equivalent of a chill-pill.

The cool, calm and classic imagery this afternoon is all down to the wonderfully creative Anushe Low.

A Northern Wedding.

Our wedding took place on the 22nd of July 2011 at Woodhall hotel and Spa, Wetherby, North Yorkshire.

Sister Selected.

My wedding dress was from the J-CREW wedding collection. Both my sisters, who were my bridesmaids helped me to decide, I loved it the minute I tried it on, and had to have it!!

Indian Jewellery.

My Father had my jewellery custom made in India. The design was a combination of both our ideas.

Peep Toes.

My shoes were peep toe, which I purchased in a bridal shop in Ripon, where my husband is from!

The Locks and Looks.

My sister-in-law is a hair dresser, she was made up when I said she had to do my hair! I had my makeup done by a makeup artist from the hotel Spa.

Hydrangea and Carnations.

My flower arrangements were a mixture of hydrangea and carnations from a florist in Ripon called The Greenhouse Florist.

Graphite Grey.

My theme colour was graphite grey and light coral pink. The groom and the best man wore a charcoal grey suit, with a darker silk tie.

Our Photographer was the very talented Anushe Low – her amazing images speak for themselves!!!

Non Traditional Cake.

We had simple rustic style cream topped lemon drizzle and chocolate cupcakes.

That’s Jazz.

Our first dance was to ‘the tide is high’ by the Paragons. For our entertainment we had a small local three man jazz band that played during the first half of the evening.

After that we had a DJ for the later part of the night, when the partying began.

A Favour For Charity.

Our favours were a small donation to two chosen charities in lieu of gifts to each guest, to represent this and let our guests know we had coasters made for the tables with our wedding logo and message on it, mentioning the charities.

Simple Decor.

The room was decorated very simply, with a lot of hydranges and frilly coronations, the table cloths and linens were were white with cream muslin sashes around the chairs. We also had vintage votives and scattered hydrangea petals on the table.

A Little Advice.

Make it your own style, stay on top of everything, let your sisters deal with it all on the day! Especially if one is an event manager and the other a graphic designer who helped with the designing of the the logo on our wedding stationery, they were both excellent on the day and prior!! Oh and also just ENJOY and relax on the day!!!!

Venue Woodhall hotel and Spa

Dress J-CREW

Blooms The Greenhouse Florist

Photography Anushe Low

Is everyone relaxed and breathing normally again now? Good.

Such a simple affair, but with the few basic themes that ran through Nadine and Andrew’s wedding they ended up with a very cohesive day with a strong identity and a wonderfully chilled feel.

I love the stationery, Nadine was obviously very lucky to have two sisters who were bridesmaids but who doubled as an event manager and a stationery designer – but as we often say, don’t be afraid to pull on the skillset of your family and friends.

9 out of 10 times your nearest and dearest will be only too happy to help make your special day one to remember for the rest of your lives.

Adam.

I’m just barging in on Kelly’s post to remind you all that it is retro week here on RMW and anyone who comments on todays post stands the chance of winning a notebook or retro film camera from the super cool people at lomography.com. Have a look at our retro week introduction post for full details. You can also learn how to enter the lomography.com competition where you can win a couples shoot styled by Rock My Wedding and shot by some of our favourite photographers.

Right, that’s all the ‘business’ out the way – as it’s retro week who better than Kelly our vintage real bride to update you on her latest W-day shenanigans. Wow, it’s like we actually plan all this or something…

Afternoon lovely readers.

The year of 2012 will see the London Olympics (don’t mention tickets), the apocalypse (Mesoamerican Calendar, what?!), the Diamond Jubilee (how cool), and the wedding of Kelly and Andy (!) so, in an attempt to look half decent on the wedding day, get myself healthy and improve my energy levels, off I went and investigated gym memberships. Unsurprisingly, it was cheaper to pay up front for the year (at this point Andy rolls his eyes and gives one of his ‘knowing’ looks) so that’s what I did. Paid-up-front-for-the-year. Gulp. I am hoping that now I have publicly declared my year long sign-up, the shame of quitting will be too much to bear haha!

Maid-Up

Meeting up with friends and family over the festive period also meant some important wedding talk. I am very lucky to have four beautiful ladies to be my best girls. There is Samantha, my maid of honour, twin sister and best friend. Djamilla, one of my oldest been-through-it-all-together friends. Samm, Andy’s oldest sister and super cool friend and Becca, Andy’s younger sister and super trendy friend.

The girls duly made their choices and that was as far as I got. Roll on several weeks and I’m browsing on-line and I come across a short-style cream dress. My heart beats a bit faster. I zoom in. I look at the different views. I click on the on-line catwalk and my mind whirrs. I love this dress. It fits better with the style of the wedding. I can imagine each of the four girls wearing it. It has lace and pleats and a little belt! So even though the decision about BM dresses had been ‘somewhat’ made, I emailed it to the girls and awaited their reactions… They loved it too! (Bridesmaid dresses. Check).

Inviting…

Lastly, if you remember my last post about invitations, we went for design number 2. I would love to take the credit for the design, but it is a mish-mash of ideas I’ve seen and liked whilst browsing on-line:

P.S. I’ve also been a busy bee making some ‘props’ which I am quite pleased with (big satisfied smile alert). Excuse the look I am making, I think I’m ‘trying’ to pose!

Leading up to the wedding, Stephen and Julia were stressing about saying their vows in front of even a small number of friends and family, so they made the decision to have no guests at this part of their day, and simply have the minister marry them. navyblur their photographers became their two witnesses.

Afterwards, Stephen and Julia threw confetti over each other as there was no-one else there to do it…… genius.

Made In Belfast.

We married on Monday 10th October 2011 at Willowfield Parish Church, Belfast. Our reception for close family and friends was at Made In Belfast Cathedral Quarter restaurant. We then had an evening party with a dj and acoustic live music at The Black Box, Belfast.

Decisive And Laid Back.

My wedding dress was by Claudine for Alyce designs. I picked it from the 2nd shop I went to and within a few days of getting engaged. We only had a 6 month engagement so I was just very decisive and laid back about entire process. For a girl who’s perfect dress would come in the form of jeans and T-shirt, I didn’t want to get too hung up on looking for something I wasn’t going to be really particular about.

I’m planning to sell it and buy something that we will use all the time and have that as a reminder of our day as opposed to letting the dress go to waste hanging in a wardrobe. The bridesmaids dresses were by the Dessy Group. They were also picked in the 2nd shop! My favourite thing was probably the navy cardigan I wore that I’d bought two days before the wedding.

Silver With Pearls.

I wore a tiara and veil that came from the same shop as the wedding dress… They were the only ones I tried on and I hadn’t really planned to get either. The jewellery was very simple, mostly silver with pearls. The pearls worked really well with the navy bridesmaids dresses and the necklace I wore was one I already owned and just decided that morning to put it on.

Rocketdog Pumps.

My shoes were from the Next Occasions collection, as were the bridesmaids. We tried to do the wedding well but without spending a fortune for the sake of it. I eventually changed into my comfortable Rocketdog pumps.

The Vintage Bride.

The Vintage Bride (Kelly McClean and Claire McEvoy) did our hair and make up. I found them by chance, went for a trial and booked them there and then. They were really great on the day and just added to the laid back atmosphere that morning.

Copper Broccoli.

The Bouquets, hair pieces, button holes, tiered cake stand, dessert and lemonade display for the evening reception were all done by the fabulous Copper Broccoli. We could not have done the majority of wedding without them. The entire evening reception was pretty much orchestrated by them! They also did a lot of running about on the day for us. Incredible! I also love that the fabric bouquets can be kept forever.

Grey And Navy.

The groom and groomsmen, Stephen’s brother Chris and two friends Martin and Jamie, were suited by Remus Uomo. They were grey suits with navy ties. The bridesmaids, my sister Lyndsey and my two friends Ashley and Beulah, wore navy Dessy dresses by Alfred Sung. I wanted the dresses to be quite plain but also something that the girls would love and be able to wear again.

All The Wee Details.

We had navyblur as our photographers. We love their work and felt they were perfect for the entire feel of our very laid back wedding! They put two people who really hate getting photos taken very much at ease. We knew they would capture all the wee details that were important to us, like family and friends present, the cake pops, whoopie pies, lemonade in jam jars, acoustic open mic sessions, quirky decor in the Made In Belfast restaurant. They are super friendly AND were also very excited to be our witnesses for the ceremony! They were more than photographers on the day and were so willing to help out with whatever needed done.

Sweets And Soups.

Neither of us wanted to do the traditional ‘cutting the cake’. We got cake pops and whoopie pies instead made by Cupcakes and Fairycakes, Belfast. We also had The Soup Kitchen Belfast (whom we met at St Georges Market) provide amazing homemade soups at the start of the evening reception.

Personal Performances.

We had an acoustic open mike set up in the cafe area of the Black Box. Musician Ruth Trimble performed, along with family and friends. David MacDermott DJ’d for us. We loved that everything was so personal and tailored to us.

This Is A Party, Not A Dance.

We didn’t want a first dance. Our aim was to throw a big party to celebrate our marriage rather than specifically focus on the ‘wedding day’ part. All of the guests commented on how relaxed the whole day was and they liked that it was very personal to us.

Stripey Straws.

We decided not to have any specific favours, Stephen made the name places, which were flags on red and white stripey paper straws.

The Black Box.

We decorated The Black Box with bunting, we had lemonade served in jam jars, copper broccoli bouquets on the tables in cafe, photos of me and Stephen as kids and growing up. We mostly wanted to allow the amazing venues to speak for themselves.

Home Made Desgins.

We would like to think our wedding was very us. We planned it the way we wanted it yet didn’t spend an unnecessary amount of money. Stephen did the invites, table plan, name places etc. We were very laid back about most things, almost anti-bridezilla! I think that the most important thing for us was just being married after the 10th. We didn’t want to get sucked into forgetting that its just one day in your life. A big thank you to our families who supported us and really did let us do whatever we wanted, including having a completely private and empty church to accommodate a shy bride!

Venue Made In Belfast and The Black Box

Dress Alyce designs

Shoes Next

Bouquets and decor Copper Broccoli

Suits Remus Uomo

Photography navyblur

Stationery The Groom

Lemonade served in jam jars with stripey straws! stickers with silly sayings, whoopie pies, flying saucers, kinder eggs, Top Hat light shades… I could go on. There are so many lovely retro elements to this wedding.

The venue is really what catches my eye here – I can understand why Stephen and Julia decided to be reserved on the additional decorating – Made In Belfast is so retro cool – it really is a complete package. The odd little personal touch here and there, including Stephen’s kick-ass design skills did just enough to put their personal stamp on things and truly make it their day, their way.

I do have a quick Heath & Safety point to raise today about using naked flames at your wedding reception… they don’t mix well with tissue wrapped bouquets…

Lucky after a bit of huffing and puffing the inferno was safely contained without incident. (It was probably a good time to have about 100 jam jars of lemonade lying around the place too…)

Leave a comment for us today and you might just win a Rad, Fab, retro camera or notebook from lomography.com.

Adam.

Our real weddings this week all have bags of retro elements and inspiration and today’s vintage-esque shindig is no exception.

We have a buttercream vintage-inspired dress from the bridal arm of Anthropologie, currently one of Charlottes most favourite sites on the inter web, bhldn.com. Matched perfectly with some beautiful crochet gloves, which although I know herald from a decade long before the 80′s still make me think a teeny-tiny bit of Madonna…

Maybe I’ve got retro on the brain…

Also, having read Natalies report I was reassured to find out that I wasn’t the only kid who collected novelty shaped rubbers in the 1980′s… Random fact of the day peeps.

The classic imagery laid out before your eyes is all by supertog team McKinley-Rodgers Photography. Enjoy.

The Cobbled Streets Of Chester.

Jez and I have been together for a long time, and once he had popped the question and I had said ‘YES’ we didn’t want to hang around so we were married just three months later! We wanted to celebrate in the city where we live and where we met and we had decided that Chester Town Hall was the perfect setting for our civil ceremony, but refurbishments meant that we had to do it this summer or wait almost a year – so we just went for it. The ceremony was wonderful – really easy going and personal. After an initial ‘moment’ when my dad, my bridesmaids and I walked into the room, I couldn’t stop smiling – nay grinning – like a Cheshire Cat. We took a risk in writing our own poem for one of our readings and my brother – who read it – had initially described it as ‘a bit left field’, but because everyone there knew us, they got it, and it went down a real treat.

For our reception, we all wandered through the cobbled streets of Chester to the beautiful Guildhall – the former parish church of the city – where we had a very tasty informal late afternoon tea of little sandwiches, crisps and scones which our amazing deli-owning friend Chris put on for us, followed by lots of mingling, dancing and catching up within the beautiful setting of the Guildhall. Pie, mash, gravy and peas were served for a good northern supper later.

Ric-Rac Detailing.

My dress is the ‘Fondant Tea Dress’ from Beholden by Anthropologie – with a name like that who wouldn’t want it? I loved it the moment I saw it online, and when it arrived just a few days after I was delighted – in fact could just have eaten it! I had been trying to find a vintage dress but time was running out, and I found that most bridal boutiques asked for far more time than I had to play with. My dress was a mix of a beautiful vintage inspired shape, made with fabrics and techniques that I already adored. The buttercream silk felt so light, the delicate sheen of it contrasted beautifully with the tiny tulle frills and ric-rac detailing, and the pin tucks gave the dress a naive twist.

A Time Gone By.

I chose accessories from Beholden too. I just fell in love with the crochet ‘unabashedly’ gloves that are presented with the Fondant tea dress online. They really are from a time gone by, and complement the dress perfectly. After a couple of emails backwards and forwards with bhldn.com stylists I also decided on the ‘Bow-Topped’ bolero as it was made with the same buttercream silk as my dress, and I felt it would balance out the look. It fitted perfectly and was exactly what I had been looking for without even knowing it. When I started to research mid-century looks I saw a lot of shorter veils. The unconventionality of the dress meant that my veil needed to be a bit different too so I decided on a birdcage veil. I like to make things – I knit, crochet and sew (a little) – and I had my mum’s cream veil that I thought I could use as the basis for my own creation. A quick search on the internet threw up a few different ‘how to’ guides so away I went. A £2.50 haberdashery spend and a few hours of head scratching, needle threading, 70s lace flower and ric-rac positioning later, and my very own creation was born. I also had my something old into the bargain.

Lady Dragon.

I knew that I wanted my shoes to stand out because of the length of my dress. Making a statement with my tootsies was surprisingly difficult. I wanted a mid-heel height, comfort and style. Apparently, these three things don’t come together all that often. Three purchases and two returns later, I had my perfect pair – my Vivienne Westwood Anglomania Lady Dragon shoes. They were the perfect height, the perfect colours and better still, they smelt AMAZING. It was like a nostalgia trip into my novelty rubber collecting 1980s childhood!

Sort Of Wavy, Sort Of Curly.

I was completely open about what to do with my hair and in fact didn’t even think about it much until the Wednesday before we got married. My hair length was quite restricting – in a not short, not long kind of way (that would be mid-length then), so I just let the people at my regular hairdressers, Essensuals in Chester, play around. They curled it, tied it up, took it down, put it up again in a different way, and then when they took it down for me to leave, there it was! A sort of wavy, sort of curly, down do which was a little bit different but still very much me. That was that. I did my make up myself. I just kept it simple and comfortable as I wanted to feel myself but spent a bit longer getting my foundation right using a primer beneath it and a translucent powder over it to keep it in place. My one new item was a gorgeoups lippy from Mac called Lady Bug (ooh I do love a good lipstick name).

British Blooms.

I intitially wanted to do all of the flowers myself. Bad idea! I tried to make a buttonhole for Jez a couple of weeks before but after one hour it had drooped hideously. If I couldn’t make a buttonhole work there was no way I was going to attempt a bouquet on my wedding day. We were so pleased with our final decision. We bought five large boxes of freshly cut British flowers from the fabulous wigglywigglers.co.uk and filled decorated jam jars for the table decorations. My mum and I had put the jam jars together a couple of weeks before armed with titbits of ribbon I never throw away, buttons, some lace I found at a vintage fair and a glue gun.

The bouquets and buttonholes were created by a local florist. The ladies at Snapdragon listened to my very open brief (just a week before the wedding I might add), – ‘just gathered’, British blooms, no particular colour scheme – showed me a picture of an edible bouquet which also had herbs in, which I loved the idea of, and then created the pretty, simple bouquets and buttonhoples wrapped in lace and ric-rac that I’d provided them with. I’d specified very little really, but I was absolutely delighted with the results.

A Little Help From Our Friends.

Getting married at such short notice, and wanting to play by our own rules, we decided to ask a few people to help out in the bridal party, but wear what they felt comfortable in. This worked really well for our wedding. Everyone felt comfortable, looked great and complemented each other beautifully! Their buttonholes and bouquets distinguished them very nicely so that people knew whom they could ask for help and directions.

Charcoal And Pale Green.

Jez found his wedding suit in John Lewis’s own range. It was charcoal grey with a little bit of a rock ‘n’ roll satin trim around the collar and pockets. He loved it, felt comforatable in it and better still, will defintately wear it again! He wore it with a beautiful shirt from a local outfitters in Chester – G:Rooms – and a pale green tie. He looked just perfect. Perfectly Jez. To top it all off was his unique and priceless smile. He smelt pretty good too in his ‘Midnight in Paris’ scent. I caught myself leaning in towards him a few times during the ceremony just to get a little sniff.

A Late Booking.

When we finally decided to have a photographer, we knew the kind of style we were looking for. We were keen that our photos would capture our day through lenses that were sympathetic to our own vision of our day. McKinley-Rodgers Photography seemed to have the perfect style for us. Their gorgeous website and online portfolio enticed me and what we found were photographers who had just the right tone for us.

Penny’s charming emails and telephone conversation convinced us that we had made the perfect choice. We weren’t even able to meet before the wedding as it was such a late booking – literally a few weeks! – but Pen was just superb on the day. Easy going, intuitive, discreet and just generally lovely.

No Cake.

Although Jez is a BIG cake fan, we decided not to have a wedding cake. Instead we invited our friends and families to bring a cake to the table for everyone to enjoy. It worked great. We had allsorts of beautiful cakes that people just devoured. We were going to cut one of them in trad style, but in the end, we lost track of time, and nobody noticed anyway!

Hey Mr DJ.

Jez is very much a music fan – so much so, that the line ‘a CD a day is good for us. it is not ridiculous’ found it’s way into the poem in our wedding ceremony! He bought some software – ‘Djay’ for his Mac – taught himself, then taught our friend Mike, and away they went. Hours of playlist building, software learning, tea drinking, PA and light hiring. Good music, good friends and good (and some not so good) dancing – a perfect mix!

God Only Knows.

Our first dance was to the Beach Boys’ ‘God Only Knows’. It’s a perfect old classic which we just love. The lyrics are so lovely and singable. I thought I’d be really worried about it, but in the end we really enjoyed our moment.

When we eventually decided we would have favours it was purely based on what I accidentally found browsing the web. Paper hearts? Embedded with the seeds of wild flowers? YES please!! The hearts looked really pretty, and hopefully, people will be planting them as we speak so they can continue to enjoy them.

Generous Pals.

Our reception venue is such a beautiful grand building in itself, with stone archways and a cavernous vaulted ceiling, that there wasn’t a lot that we could possibly do to make it more beautiful! However, a few of our fabulous friends and family came along the night before and transformed the white linen covered tables into pretty, understated pieces of art adorned with vintage mismatching crocks borrowed from a fabulous friend, tea lights, borrowed from another fabulous friend, and decorated jam jars filled with a higgledy-piggledy assortment of freshly picked British blooms.

With the seed paper hearts in the cups the tables were complete. We adorned the edges of the room with just a little bunting – again borrowed from generous pals – and the room was complete. Just lovely. Very pleasing.

A Cello Bass Bride.

One of my favourite things about our day was performing in our very own little concert! Jez plays guitar and is in an on-off band with our great friend Mike. Befittingly they’re called ‘Things That Never Happen’! They had played a few songs at Mike’s wedding a few years ago – including ‘Just Like Heaven’ by The Cure. They decided to re-form for this occasion, and how befitting in true rock ‘n’roll style to do a response in the form of ‘Friday I’m In Love’ also by The Cure – after all, it was Friday and we were in love.

I wasn’t happy in the sidelines providing tea, so I suggested that I play a bassline on my cello which I started to learn last year. It was a challenge as I’m certainly no virtuoso, but I thought it would be fun and worth it in the long run. It was SOOOOO brilliant doing it. I didn’t dare look up at our friends and family in case I missed a note or got a giggle fit, but I think they all enjoyed it judging from the applause! I think it was a real glimpse into us and our world – particularly for people who we don’t see all that often.

Beg And Borrow.

Three months is not a long time to prepare for a wedding, but it’s definitely achievable and I would advise anyone who wants to and can do it to go for it. We chose the things that were really important to us to get right – the venues, the ethos and the people – and everything else we were pretty easy about, spending where necessary but also very happy to beg and borrow, craft and thrift. When our photographers asked us to describe our wedding in three words, we replied with ‘our own rules’. And that would be my advice for any betrothed couple.

We didn’t have a massive budget, or lots of preconceptions about what we wanted our day to be like, so we just hatched our outline plan and things unfolded as we went along. We worked it all out together. If you stay true to your own rules, work together and don’t get too stressed, then your individuality and personalities will shine through. And when you look back on that day, how it will make you smile!

Venue Chester Guildhall

Dress bhldn.com

Accessories bhldn.com

Shoes Vivienne Westwood

Hair Essensuals in Chester

Blooms wigglywigglers.co.uk

Florist Snapdragon

Photography McKinley-Rodgers Photography

We bloody love The Cure at RMW, infact Charlotte and I can often be found jumping about to the sounds of Friday I’m In Love when really we should be doing something more sensible like writing a post.

I think we may have touched on every single decade in retro week with this beaut of a wedding! – share your favourite part of Natalie and Jez’s day with us in the comments box and just like every post this week, you could win a stupidly cool retro camera or notebook from lomography.com.

Spread the retro love peeps… even though it’s Wednesday not Friday.

Adam.

I adore the summer affair of Frank and Amanda (known as Framanda to their friends – I know! love!)… so much it’s been literally hell having to wait until Retro Week to feature it. I think it’ll be worth the wait though folks, so many ideas for you to steal on the fashion and floral front.

One of the reasons this celebration is one of my favourites ever to grace the pages of RMW is it is jam-packed with a whole bunch of my past and current favourite big day bits and pieces. Firstly Amanda is wearing THAT dress, possibly the most immense 50′s inspired gown on the whole of the planet. Secondly they have not one, not two, but ALL of my most lusted-after blooms of the moment, hydrangea, lisianthus and tonnes and tonnes of gypsophila…. a bunch of gyp in a tea-cup stacked on top of some old books has to be one of the simplest yet most effective table centres I have seen in a while. And then there’s the car, an original Fiat 500, the cutest car of the 60′s and early 70′s. (Possibly never mentioned the fact I like old cars – it’s a bit of a step away from make-up and clothes and the like…)

And lastly? lastly all of this pretty happened in a pub. Yep a pub. Just goes to show, you don’t have to have the fanciest country manor venue to shake it up in the style stakes.

Add all of the above to a witty write up and you’ve got yourself a generous slice of blue polka dot perfection.

With huge thanks to photographer Joanna Brown for just being generally awesome.

Easy Breezy Up-Do

My Fabulous hair was done by my hairdresser Mark Westbrook from Westbrooks workshop and wonderful make up was done by Sharon Robinson tel:- 07950885638 they both did the most amazing job, I couldn’t have asked for anything more. Simple and Perfect!

I Always Knew

As soon as my other half proposed I searched the inter-web for a 50s style dress.

Once I found it I popped it on and knew instantly it was the one, the designer is Justin Alexander style number 8465.
I’’m also planing to wear the dress every Christmas to pop the tree up in … making me a very large fairy

Aqua And Grey

Our lovely bridesmaid Claudine wore a aqua dress from Monsoon and my little niece wore a sweet pink dress from BHS with my nephew as the dashing pageboy in his cute little grey suit. Knowing that we wanted a suits that would fit perfectly and for everyone to feel comfortable We decided not to hire them and to let everyone rock up in there own. (Plus we didn’t really want everyone matching on the day I think it added to the quirkiness).

Something Borrowed And Something Handmade

For my hair I made three little flowers, they are ivory satin with Swarovski crystal center bits (which I also sell on my little Etsy shop) and quickly whipped up a bird cage veil. I wasn’’t originally going to wear a veil but after much deliberation with Claudine ( my cheif Bridesmaid) and Joanna ( My lovely photographer lady) we thought it would finish the look off well.

My jewellery was from pilgrim and I had a little brooch on my bouquet which was from my Aunty Pauline.

A Gift From The Groom

When I think back on the things that really stood out for me it was the surprise that Frank had arranged before we got to the church.

On his list of thing to do for the wedding transport was one of them, he kept saying that my dad and myself were going to be picked up by the local cab company down the road. I belived him…there was a knock on the door from the taxi man and stepping outside we both looked up and down the road trying to find the him and his car. We spotted him a few doors down but we couldn’’t see the car as my own little car was in the way……..(now I have a fiat 500 the new one and my car is small so I was really confused!) My Dad was the first to spot the car and it was an original fiat 500……..I loved it eek!

A Flash Of Ditsy

My lovely gorgeous hubby Frank wanted a fab suit for the occasion so we trundled off to London town to a tailors called A suit that fits’ . He really loved the thought of a beautiful grey tailored suit with a flashy deep purple lining. His fab little ditsy print tie was from Reiss. The night before the wedding I also gave him a little pocket watch as a pressie he really did look amazing.

A Genius Talent

I love love our photographer Joanna Brown. I literary spent months searching for the perfect one and as soon as we meet her we knew we had to have her do our photos. She’s a very talented lady and made us feel completely at ease. I loved the fact that she did a photo booth as well…. pure genius!

HOT Flowers

Our florist were Roger and Sue from Hot flowers. I know how creative both Roger and Sue are so I knew they would do
a wonderful job. We created a mood board to show them our theme and for us to draw inspiration from too.

We wanted a vintage style bouquet for myself and little white rose button holes for the groom/groomsmen and vintage table centers in teacups and lovely little perfume bottles (which I searched the width and breadth of the country for in brick-a-brac/charity shops)… with the lazer cut butterflies and humming birds perched in the flowers.

Our colour theme was soft pinks, white, creams and some lovely dirty greens. Hot flowers picked a fab array of flowers to match, pink and white roses, green hydrangeas with Lisianthus etc… The teacups were then popped on top of some old books with a lazer cut table number and small jars with candles in.

I spent many a lunch time designing the table numbers, table names, table plan, menus, wedding invites, order of service etc ….. I also made good use of the Lazer machine I have at work whilst consuming a large number of chocolate pots for the candle holders. Dieting before the wedding wasn’’t an option…. Yikes!

A Day Of Entertaining

At the church we decided to hire Cornerstone Gospel Choir to raise the rafters and get everyone dancing down the aisles. I was really conscious of walking down the isle to the wedding march and both myself and Frank feeling very nervous so Cornerstone suggested “going to the chapel of love” by the Dixie cups which was the best. When the music came on everyone was smiling :0)

After everyone had finished munching Joanna our photographer set up a Photobooth which was to the joy of our friends and family and not forgetting the wee nippers who loved it too.

For our evening entertainment we hired a lady called Kate Westall who sang our first song beautifully for us and a fabulous array from Bob Marley and Stevie Wonder to Jill Scott. She definitely got the crowd going and even the locals in the pub were up and dancing with us!

A Significant Reminder

Our first dance was Take That, Rule the World. The reasoning behind this was I love the film Stardust and unfortunately had made Frank watch it a billion times when we first started dating. Ever since then when ever we hear Rule The World it reminds us both of each other…. Although I’m still looking for the DVD he hid from me many moons ago!

Mini Bunting

I had already made the cake toppers before we had even decided on what cake to get. My dad got on the blower and asked if he could help us on the list of things to do. It was fabulous as we just wanted an iced white fruit cake so I could pop the cake toppers on top and the little bunting…. Loved it!

Retro Favours

We wanted the favours to be vintage with something from our childhood. Looking into vintage toys we came across Magic fish (!) and we just love mini eggs too…. The combination was a wee bit odd but we loved it and hopefully it took our guest back to the good old days!

The Prettiest Public House

The venue itself needed no real decoration its simple stunning down to its chesterfields, old painting and posters and cosy corners. We reserved the outside bit which was covered (just in case the rain wanted to join in on the party) it has wonderful chandeliers hanging down over the tables so seeing that, we though that little tea cups sitting on stacked old books with some pretty lazer cut butterflies and birds would do the job nicely.

Natalie who runs the Marlborough pub and her team did a awesome job putting our wedding decorations up and co-ordinating our day for us. I seriously don’t know what I would have done with out her.

Advice For Future Brides

We wrote a list of things to do in order of importance then we divided it between myself and the groom and stuck it on the fridge. ( crossing things off the list is very satisfying and stops the panic!)

If things go wrong it really isn’t the end of the world….Keep calm and carry on!

Lomography Love.

And to finish off, some dreamy lomo shots that Joanna took with her Diana F+. Perfect for Retro Week.

Browns Gown – Justin Alexander

Brides Accessories – Handmade and on Etsy

Maids Dress -Monsoon

Grooms Suit -A Suit That Fits’

Florist – Hot flowers

Gospel Choir -Cornerstone Gospel Choir

Fiat 500 – www.weddingclassiccars.co.uk

Venue – The Marlborough Pub

Photographer -Joanna Brown

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Don’t forget folks, cute cameras and brilliant books up for grabs from Lomography on every post this week so get love leaving.

Big THAT dress Love

Charlotte xxx

And if the fabulous fashion wasn’t enough Claire and Jonathan mixed old school cinema decor with contemporary colour pop blooms and a generous helping of personalisation. Love.

Oh and they chose what is possibly one of the cleverest (and funniest) ways of allocating people to their table that I have ever seen (have a peek at the end of the post if you want to join in…)

All of the quirk is courtesy of the Queen of Kitsch Julia Boggio.

Making A Style Statement

It really was the hair and make up that brought it all together. Jo Neilsen is a freelance make up artist who is an old friend and she was an absolute genius. We decided we needed a statement ‘do and it was actually Sadie who suggested the blonde hairpiece to make the side bun – I was a peroxide blonde for many, many years and it was a nod to that and it really worked. The amazing hair combined with the simple, yet immaculate make up really made the look work and I didn’t have to touch it up once.

I wore my Nanna’s pearl necklace and bracelet. The girls at FCNK sourced a fabulous diamante brooch to decorate the back of my sash and I had diamante pins in my hair to match.

Pimp My Gown

The girls at Fur Coat No Knickers created my dress. I knew I couldn’t carry off a traditional wedding dress and after a couple of disappointing visits to “proper “ wedding dress shops a friend recommended FCNK. As soon as we got in there I knew this was the place for me. I was worried that being on the larger side there wouldn’t be any vintage dresses to fit me but Laura and Emma were fabulous. We settled on what I lovingly called my “Corpse Bride” dress. It started life as a very long, high necked, long sleeved gown with gorgeous vintage lace and the girls “pimped” it to perfection. Although I love 50’s dresses I didn’t want to feel as if I was dressing up so we decided to go for the quirky graduation at the back which I loved. You can never really see what you look like in your dress until you see the photos and I absolutely loved it.

The Perfect Platform

My shoes were Jimmy Choos!! Gorgeous sparkling platform peeptoes. I am a nightmare when it comes to shoes as everything hurts! My bridesmaid Sadie almost killed me several times when we thought we had found “the ones” only for them to “pinch a bit here” or “rub a bit there”. The Choos were amazingly comfy, looked fab and didn’t make me tower over Jonathan. Perfect.

The Name’s Bond

We asked the ushers and best man to wear grey suits and white shirts. We picked the ties from Duchamp and they worked perfectly even though Jonathan wasn’t sure about wearing a pink, flowery tie to start off with!

Jonathan got his 3 piece suit made for him by October House and it fitted him perfectly. He chose the style of Sean Connery’s grey suit in Goldfinger – his favourite film.

A Cinema Ceremony

We couldn’t have confetti so I also made lots of ribbon wavers and signs saying “woo hoo”, “yay” and “Mr and Mrs Grant” for people to wave after the ceremony. I put everything in popcorn boxes and left them on the chairs in the ceremony room.

There was a display table with a brilliant sign I found on Etsy saying You Are The Gin To My Tonic, some vintage “C” and “J” playing card cards and also displaying our invitations which we got from Royal Steamline – we had different ones for the day and evening and the evening ones were perfect with a black and white chequerboard design to match the floor in the Temple.

Flowers And Fairy Lights

Athena at Rebel Rebel did my flowers and what a job she did! Andaz as a venue has a lot of features and each room is totally different so it didn’t need much decoration – just something to make it look a bit more weddingy! I had decided on pink, yellow and red as my colour scheme as I thought these colours would go with every room. The ceremony room is all pale blue and cream with a big bold print on the wall. When we went to see Rebel Rebel it was around valentine’s day and they had the big, red heart made from fairy lights in their window – I loved it and we agreed we could have this in the fireplace for the ceremony rather than plinths or flowers. The fairy light theme continued for dinner and we had gloriosa lilies suspended in water with little waterproof lights in them – it looked fabulous.

Jonathan had a single gloriosa lily as his button hole and the wedding party had a mix of red, pink and yellow roses. My usherettes had beautiful wrist corsages in contrasting colours and Sadie had an amazing bouquet of spiky dahlias that matched her dress perfectly. My bouquet was full of pink, yellow and red spiky dahlias and it was exactly what I had imagined.

Bold Brights

My girls followed the colour scheme brilliantly and were quite happy that I had decided against the traditional bridesmaid dresses. As there were three, we had a pink, a yellow and a red. Sadie bagsied the red being chief BM and we found the perfect thing in Karen Millen and even got the matching red and pink shoes. My usherettes Heather and Abby got their dresses from ASOS and we decided on gold shoes to match mine. As thank you gifts I got the girls vintage pearls to wear that also matched me.

The Right Decision

After listening to (and seeing) so many horror stories about poor photography at weddings, I knew that having a great photographer was an absolute must. After deciding and booking Andaz as our venue I knew I wanted Julia Boggio to take our photos as she had shot the Andaz brochure which was stunning. Jonathan and I went to visit Julia and her husband James at their studio in Wimbledon and we knew immediately we had made the right choice. We had a lot in common with regards to loving films and everything vintage and we booked immediately. It was absolutely the right decision and the photos really speak for themselves.

I had also seen Julia’s wonderful Vintage Boudoir package and I knew this would make the perfect gift for Jonathan. About 3 months before the wedding I snuck off to Wimbledon for a fabulous day of being transformed in to a 50’s supermodel and we had so much fun at the shoot. After the shoot I went back for a viewing session with James and we decided on a beautiful brochure featuring 10 prints for me to present Jonathan with on the morning of the wedding. Choosing the final shots to be put in the book was really hard so I had another image enlarged and framed. I asked Sadie to hang this in our bedroom whilst we were on honeymoon so when we got home it was another surprise for Jonathan. He was blown away!

A Plan Of Pornstars

I really wanted there to be a DIY element to the day so I decided to make my own orders of service, place cards and table plan. Jonathan and I thought it would be funny to put everyone’s names down using their porn names (first pet and Mother’s maiden names) – there were some crackers.

I also made two very big boards full of photos of everyone who was at the wedding surrounded by red, yellow and pink hearts. This was really to give people something to look at and feel part of the day during the reception – it was a great conversation starter!

Magical Music

Our first dance was “To The End” by Blur. On holiday last year we were talking about the key pieces of music we needed to have for the wedding – going down the aisle, coming back up the aisle and of course, first dance. We decided to let the iPod decide and hit shuffle and decided that the next three songs would be the ones we would use. What a lovely story that would have been but the first song was Gold Digger by Kanye West and I think another was a song from Les Mis so it didn’t really work. However after a few attempts “To The End” came on and we knew we had to have it especially as we were going to be in the Temple and it had that wonderful ethereal sound that made it very magical indeed.

The other two songs we had were for walking down the aisle – You Only Live Twice by Nancy Sinattra (my Mum heard it on the radio and knew it would be perfect – she was right) and One Day Like This by Elbow for when we walked down the aisle together married after having seen their epic set at Glastonbury this year.

Having Your Favourites

I decided to make the cake myself – firstly as part of budgeting and secondly because I love baking and cooking and thought it was worth giving it a go. The girls came round the day before and we all made it together – it was lots of fun and we were very impressed with how it looked. It didn’t form part of the meal so was really just a gesture to cut. It was chocolate with rich chocolate buttercream and fresh raspberries and we had it with the evening buffet.

We also had a pork pie cake. I am a major pork pie fan so to have this was really my dream (yes really). Jonathan’s parents sourced the three tiers locally and each were different – pork and apple, pork and pickle and plain pork. Sadie got the little piggies and made their wedding attire and the picnic blanket and it really was the star of the show.

Important Advice

It’s your day – do what you want. Remember you will only get to do it once and you don’t want to think back and say I really wish we had done that now.. better to regret something you did do rather than you didn’t do.

Get a good team around you. I honestly couldn’t have done the wedding without my bridesmaid Sadie, my usherettes and my Mum. They weren’t all involved all the time but they each had a big part to play in their own certain way. And of course, involve your groom. Jonathan wasn’t a particularly hands on groom and even if yours isn’t tell him what you are planning and what you are worried about. Jonathan brought me back down to earth so many times and made me remember we were getting married and not putting on a big production – he kept me grounded.

Brides Gown – Fur Coat No Knickers

Brides Shoes – Jimmy Choo

Grooms Suit – October House

Photography – Julia Boggio

Maids Dresses – ASOS

Venue – Andaz

Stationery – Royal Steamline

Blooms – Rebel Rebel

So what is your “Porn star” name (first pet + mothers maiden name)? mine is Poppy Meredith, Vix’s is Sophie Llewellyn and Adam’s is… Flopsy Wedgebrow.

No – I’m not even kidding.

Don’t forget you can win a sexy camera or London notebook for leaving some love on this post folks!

Big I’ll Have Mine With Ice And Lemon Love

Charlotte xxx

I will officially become Mrs. Céline Kimberly in 177 days. Wowzers!
For most of 2011, I was as cool as a cucumber about all the wedding planning but after making a list of to-do’s at Christmas, it hit me that my slow and steady approach just isn’t going to cut it. After all, everyone knows the devil is in the details (I have actually had nightmares about forgetting confetti cones. Seriously)!
The hardest thing about organising a wedding so far away is having to compress a lot into short spurts. Fortunately, we were in Brittany over Christmas and we made sure to stay busy: we met with the florist, we visited the church again, we organised the Friday night rehearsal dinner and we started choosing readings with our lovely priest. All in the space of two days!

Pinterest & Scrapbooks.

One of the ‘details’ I wanted to start bringing together over Christmas was how to decorate the church and the venue and I would never have succeeded without the help of Pinterest!

That’s when Pinterest came along, which saved my life and future marriage….
It’s essentially an online scrapbook where you ‘pin’ images to your boards. All the online pictures you pin are still linked to the original source and all the boards are public so people can start following yours and in turn you can follow theirs. Seriously, it’s the future of scrapbooking. My mum has registered to the website too so we can easily communicate ideas to each other!

Pretty Things.

Now I had the tools, I needed the inspiration….

I initially wanted to rent candelabras to limit costs (I need eight to form centrepieces for half of the tables) but all the ‘glass’ ones I could find in France were actually plastic and therefore quite unstable. So I took the plunge and bought these ones with the plan to sell them after (one of my bridesmaids has already laid claim to one of them!). I have to say I’m really really pleased with them and I think they’ll look super pretty as centrepieces. I’d like to have the arms covered in foliage and flowers though I have yet to see a picture of that so I’m not sure yet if it’s possible…. The venue owner did emphasise that the candelabrum should be above eyesight so we may put a box underneath it to give it extra height and surround the base with flowers too. It’s still a work in progress but here are some pictures of candelabra arrangements that I quite like.

Photography by Eliza Claire.
This is bigger than I am aiming for but I like that’s it’s not just a ball in the middle.

Image from love-ina-mist.co.uk
If we need to give it more height, we could add a crown of flowers at the base, though again this is bigger than I imagine it!

So that’ll form the basis of the decoration for the reception room. The outside courtyard will be covered in flowers at this time of the year and I don’t want to overcrowd it. I’m going to focus on finding lanterns to go up the stone staircase and I’d like to put a couple of flower arrangements placed in old milk jugs on half of the tables outside:

Milk jug | The Inside Story. Lanterns | Martha Stewart.

Our ‘Brief’ Meeting With The Florist.

Now that I had these initial ‘props’ and a large number of pictures of floral arrangements we really liked, we met with our lovely florist (who’s actually just our local florist – that was the easiest decision ever!). Tom recalls this meeting as lasting 10-15 minutes… of course, in reality it lasted about an hour and a half!

She mentioned a lot of flower names but I’ll be honest, I’ve forgotten quite a lot of them…. I just know there’ll be lots of hydrangeas (they’re local to Brittany so we may end up just cutting them for our neighbours’ gardens), roses like the ones in the pictures and roses posing as peonies as peonies will no longer be in season. We’ll be seeing her again in April when she’s going to try out two different candelabra decorations for us to see, so that should be exciting!

January Happenings.

Christmas was busy busy but we still have plenty of to get on with in January and February. We’ve been choosing the ushers’ and bridesmaids’ outfits and looking at wedding invites. I have to be honest, wedding invites have been incredibly hard to choose. We wanted to keep with the travel theme and somehow use maps, but there are so many options out there! Also, we’ve found it quite hard to decide how to incorporate both French and English into the invites – any ideas?

Celine xxx

Kate and Adam choose the lesser known but stupidly beautiful “I Will” from The White Album. In her report Kate included a few lyrics but I’ve jumped in and stolen them to put you all in the mood:

Love you forever and forever
Love you with all my heart
Love you whenever we’re together
Love you when we’re apart.

So simple, yet so effective. I don’t think you could sum up that sentiment any more succinctly – and Lenon and McCartney made it rhyme the show-offs!

Anyway – on with the show. Today’s images are all by the simply marvellous S6 Photography.

Rock my Wedding; you gave me much joy searching through your pages while I was getting ideas for my wedding and I may add, I’m still slightly obsessed …

The Right Decision.

We wanted to keep our day really intimate, it was really important to us both to just have the people who mean a lot to us and that did mean not having all the extended family and friends, which was sometimes a difficult decision, but definitely the right one in the end. We also decided that we wanted the ceremony quite late, we got married at 4.30pm, and because of that we skipped the sit-down meal part – which I had worried about a bit, but so many guests told us how much they loved the informal feel to the day and the meal was not missed at all – phew!

We found the perfect location in the Leopold Hotel, which is a beautiful boutique hotel in the centre of Sheffield. It’s an old grammar school which has been restored, so is a lovely mix of vintage and modern – just what we wanted.

Heavy Cream And Lace.

I knew from day one what sort of dress I wanted, I’m quite particular in the style of dress I usually wear and someone gave me some great advice; on your wedding day you should look like ‘you’, but just a more polished, glamorous ‘you’ – this really stuck with me and because I never wear strapless in the ‘real’ world, I didn’t want to do it on a day when everyone would be looking at me and taking photos! So, I knew I wanted something with lace and sleeves (which was also appropriate given the time of year) and something with a bit of a 60’s style as I absolutely love the 60s, especially the clothes!

I found the ‘one’ on Etsy while looking for something else…it’s an original 60s dress made entirely of gorgeous heavy cream lace and was just perfect.

Lace And Pearls.

I have really short hair, so I felt a headband would have looked a bit wrong and any sort of clip would have just fallen out, but I really felt I needed something in my hair to finish the look off, so I didn’t look like just a normal day. My hairdresser, Leigh, from the Cutting Room in Rotherham has cut my hair for years so I know she does a fantastic job, and on the day she not only made me look lovely, but my mum, sister and sister in-law. It was a real pleasure having her there and we had such a laugh getting ready together. Leigh made me the most beautiful headpiece to wear. I gave her some bits of old lace and she lovingly cut out the tiny flowers and pieced them together to make the larger flowers which were joined together by wire and small pearly beads…then the best bit; she ‘stitched’ it into my hair!!

Adam bought me some gorgeous pearl earrings as a surprise, which he gave me a few weeks before (as he was worried I wouldn’t like them – as if!!) so with the lace and pearls in my hair, it really tied the whole look together.

Chunky 60’s Styling.

Because of the style of my dress, I felt the usual dainty, sparkly ‘wedding’ shoe wouldn’t really look right, so I wanted something a bit chunkier in keeping with the 60s style. I also needed something with a bit of height as I’m quite short and wanted to be able to look into Adam’s lovely eyes, not his chest! After searching, I eventually found a cream patent, mary jane style shoe in Topshop… I had wanted to treat myself to some posh shoes, as I do love my shoes, but when I came across these they just seemed so right and I think they looked perfect with the dress.

Ribbons In Her Hair.

I decided to play a bit of dress-up with my sister (my beautiful bridesmaid). My hairdresser did the most amazing beehive style up-do for her, which looked fantastic. I bought some ribbon in similar colours to her dress which Leigh then tied around her hair and clipped a bow which she had made in the same ribbon onto the side.

When it came to make-up, my sister and I decided to do it ourselves, although I don’t usually wear much, I do love make-up and enjoy putting it on. We treated ourselves to some lovely new Benefit stuff and I did the make-up for us both.

Wed In Red.

My favourite colour is red. So it was a bit of a given that we’d have red at the wedding. But, I didn’t want to go down the route of pillar box red and red roses etc, so we decided to have a dark red/burgundy, autumnal colour scheme, which actually fit perfectly with the venue too, as their décor is all dark reds and browns (which may have been why I loved the venue so much….!) I met our florist Sasha from Forget me Not some time ago so she was a perfect choice to do our wedding flowers. For my bouquet I asked Sasha for something naturally tied and not too structured and she made the perfect arrangement for me using some gorgeous red tipped roses, deep red (almost purple in fact!) calla lilies and dark red and green berries and foliage, which were all tied together with a lovely ribbon. My sister had just a smaller version of mine as I liked the idea of having them the same.

A top tip for all you brides to be; Sasha made me a smaller bouquet up as a little extra for me to throw, such a great idea, as the lucky girl who caught it got to keep a little memento from the day (and a reminder to her other half maybe…!!)

Terracotta Arrangements.

For the evening, we had four large tables in the room, but because we didn’t have a meal we didn’t need to have full place settings or anything. I do love flowers though so knew I wanted some flower arrangements for the tables, so my florist made up four terracotta pots of flowers, using slightly different colours to my bouquet; more orangey/reds which looked lovely and made sure everything wasn’t too matchy matchy. I wanted to get the most out of these flowers and use them for the ceremony also; so there was a large fireplace in the room which I placed two of the arrangements on and placed two on the table at the front. Reusing the flowers is a good tip if you want to keep your cost down and get the most out of your flowers.

My Only Bridesmaid.

My sister was my only bridesmaid, it felt right only having one as our wedding was small and we didn’t have a large wedding party as such. She was the best person to have by my side throughout the planning, getting ready (including all the prep of having our nails done and hair practices etc running up to the day…we had such fun!!), and on the day itself. She was a true star and also kept me on the ground a bit when I had a few bridezilla potential moments! She was also the entertainment for the morning when getting ready – having us all in stitches! I really wanted to play on the 60s style with her whole outfit, and I couldn’t find a traditional bridesmaid dress that I liked and wanted her to be comfortable in it too – so I went for a very ‘non-traditional’ short dress from Topshop, which she wore with black tights and skyscraper shoes! It was a lovely silky material which hung beautifully, with long floaty sleeves in a mink colour. The colour really set off the brighter colours of the bouquets, as well as the boys’ suits and together with her beehive I think she looked absolutely fabulous!

Simple Suits.

Adam had two best men (greedy I know!!) and we wanted to keep their outfits quite simple too and because of the autumnal colour scheme, grey or black would have looked totally wrong and neither of us particular liked morning suit style jackets – we also thought it would be a nice touch to buy them their suits which they could keep afterwards and hopefully get more wear out of them.

A Reason To Go Bespoke.

I’d seen Adam in his suit beforehand as I was quite involved in this part – but when I saw him stood there waiting for me, it was one of the most amazing moments of my life, and even through the tears (I cried pretty much all the way down the aisle) I could see he looked gorgeous!

Adam has always wanted the experience of having a suit made, so obviously our wedding was a perfect opportunity. And looking back, it is definitely worth the extra money to do this as we had such a good time during the fittings etc, which was mostly because of the amazing Fiona Greene at Greene and Clark, she was fantastic right from the start and helped us choose the perfect cloth, colours and even the lovely dotty cravat and hankerchief.

Simple And Beautiful.

After searching through loads of photographers’ websites, I came across S6 Photography. Jon’s images are simply beautiful and I knew straight away I wanted him to shoot our day and Adam agreed instantly. He managed to capture the day as it happened so when we look at them (and I can’t stop looking at them!) they tell the complete story of the day, and have provided us with a lasting memory of some fabulous, and sometimes extremely funny, moments which we can now remember forever.

Mum Made.

My amazing Mum (with a little help from me and my sister) made cupcakes for us, I didn’t fancy having a traditional cake and Mum had recently been on a cupcake making course so it was an obvious choice and was a great way for her to be involved in the preparations. The day before the wedding the three of us spent the morning in my kitchen decorating 100 cupcakes with red fondant and chocolate hearts and lots and lots of glitter!

A Good Mix.

The entertainment was something we took a long time thinking about. Adam and quite a few of his friends are what you may call ‘amateur’ DJ’s! And usually at parties and weddings etc they all chip in. But, we thought it would be nice to take all the stress out of this (because it usually ends up with them setting all the equipment up themselves and clearing away at the end of the night) and hire a DJ. We went with the company that the hotel usually uses 1DJ1 and they allowed us to give them a complete play list which was great – when we sent our invitations we invited all our guests to request a song to be played later on so it ensured a good mix of music and would hopefully get everyone up dancing!

I Will.

Adam absolutely loves The Beatles… I mean really LOVES them! So, they were an obvious choice for our first dance, especially with the 60s inspired outfits. He’s also a sucker for a good love song lyric, I don’t mean soppy love songs but ones which really mean something. We chose ‘I Will’ which is the most beautiful song, the lyrics are lovely, but it is not your usually soppy love song and meant we could have a bit of fun with the dancing – by throwing in a couple of spins! We had chosen the song quite early on, but a couple of days before the wedding we had a bit of a panic that we hadn’t practiced in any way. Adam is not without rhythm, until it comes to slow dancing with me…then he turns into a piece of cardboard and he was sooo nervous about this part of the day. So, we stuck the song on and had a little dance around our room, planning where we could do a few spins – it was lovely to take a bit of time out to have a dance, when do people ever do this normally?!

No Frills Vintage.

I really wanted a slightly vintage feel to the wedding, but without too much of the ‘frills’
The venue was beautiful in its own right and I really felt it didn’t need too much in the way of decoration, as it had all the original features such as oak panelling around the walls and a large fireplace with a clock in the centre. We had a little side room to the main ceremony/reception room where the food and cakes etc were which I decorated with red heart shaped bunting and sprinkled rose petals on the tables.

Something Really Special.

Apologies for a really soppy moment coming up…Adam is the most generous, caring, loving person I have ever met, and I know his close family and friends think this too. He’s had some tough times in his life and when I looked round the room during the speeches there was something really special going on – it’s difficult to explain in words, but the people who know him and have been there for him had a real sense of pride about them, which I’ll never forget. My Dad, who has always got on really well with Adam, had a lot, and I mean a lot, of love for him that day – it was brilliant!!

We tried to give each guest a record which would mean something to them, either the song or artist, and we had quite a bit of fun going through them all and deciding who to send what. A couple of days after posting these, I was bombarded with texts telling me how much people loved them, so a great success I think!!

Venue Leopold Hotel

Dress Etsy

Shoes Topshop

Hair Cutting Room

Blooms Forget me Not

Tailor Greene and Clark

Photography S6 Photography

DJ 1DJ1

I LOVE the stationery – when I first saw it I though, cool – they’ve had stationery printed to look like 7″ singles. When I found out that in fact they had got hold of a load of actual vinyl and sent them out with home made labels on I nearly had an accident.

I am SO Stealing THAT idea.

What Idea? My Idea… yeah… my idea.

Adam.

I particularly love the wish tree, not only because it serves as both a way to engage guests and create keepsakes but because it is a relatively easy and cost effective option that also lends itself as a piece of bespoke decor. And I know birdcages are not “new” in terms of tablecentre arrangements but I do think Amy’s choice of distressed versions filled with trailing ivy and stocks look just like something out of a happy-ever-after fairytale – in a really good way.

Amy and Matt were married at St Andrews Church in Kegworth, followed by a marquee reception in the beautiful Whatton House Gardens in Loughborough. All of the fun, laughter and celebration was captured by Rachael Connerton.

Beauty Blogger

I write a beauty blog www.amyantoinette.com so I experiment with different products and looks on a daily basis so I knew I’d be more comfortable doing my own makeup and being in control of how I looked. My half up hair do was done by Jane from Jarah Hair & Day Spa who achieved the loose curls and romantic look I desired.

Romantic Ruffles

I found my beautiful Caldera dress by Blue by Enzoani in the aptly named Dream Wedding Dress in Nottingham. I first spotted it whilst browsing on the internet and managed to locate the dress in a local shop. I wanted something very feminine and romantic so I fell in love with the soft, floaty ruffles, the long sweeping, elegant train and the touch of sparkle on the bodice. As soon as I tried it on I knew it was the one, despite the sample dress being four sizes too big for me!

Gliding down the aisle in this magnificent dress was everything I imagined it to be. I wish I could wear it again!

Focussing On Fashion

I didn’t want to go overboard with accessories as I wanted to keep the focus on the dress so the only jewellery I wore was the Swarovski bracelet which Matt had given me for my 21st birthday and diamante earrings from Glitzy Secrets. It was the perfect hint of sparkle without being too overpowering. I adored my veil which had a few flowers embroidered on it which tied in perfectly with the dress.

As I’m already 5’9 and I wanted to be comfortable with all the dancing I knew was to take place, I opted for ivory kitten heels with a satin bow on the toe.

Softly Softly

I absolutely adore pale pink fluffy peonies but sadly these were no longer flowering in August so my bouquet featured soft pink and ivory roses instead with bouvardia. The enamel jugs and birdcages which featured as the table centrepieces included flowers which perfectly suited the English Country Garden theme – roses, stocks, gypsophila and ivy. Our florist Floraldeco was fabulous and perfectly captured the look we were going for.

Grey And Blush

Our Dads and the best man were dressed with hired three piece grey suits from Slaters, whilst the Ushers wore their own grey suits, all adorned with a pale pink rose and a sprig of baby’s breath. The beautiful blush pink bridesmaids dresses were bought from Fever. Soft and feminine with a gathered sweetheart bust and one shoulder of ruffled flowers, the dresses were whimsical and fitted perfectly with the theme of the day.

Matt searched high and low for a very pale grey three piece suit to no avail, so he eventually settled on a regular grey suit from Next. He looked dashingly handsome and my face broke into a huge smile when the Church doors opened and I saw the man of my dreams waiting for me at the end of the aisle.

Finally Finding The One

Having an amazing photographer was such an important part of the day for us. With all the money being spent on the big day it made sense to invest in having the moments captured beautifully so we’d have something to treasure for years to come. It took a lot of time and effort searching through hundreds of photographers but eventually we met Rachael Connerton and her husband Ian and we knew we’d found the perfect photographers.

Not only were their photo’s beautiful, they’re such a lovely couple and made us feel so incredibly comfortable. They took time to get to know us as a couple and they were so genuinely excited about our wedding which we hadn’t experienced with the other photographers we’d met with. It was an absolute delight to have them with us on our special day and the beautiful photo’s from the day presented in a gorgeous Queensberry photo album meant it was worth every penny!

Shabby Chic

We wanted a shabby chic feel to the decor so holding the reception in a marquee was ideal for providing us with a blank canvas to work with. We were able to pick everything from the design to the carpet colour so it was completely individual to us. We wanted something very light and airy so chose a pale cream carpet which was ideal for offsetting the reams of pastel bunting which my mum had lovingly made to decorate the tops of the marquee. The white walls of the marquee created a tranquil feel and really made the touches of colour from the centrepieces and the lilac glass water bottles stand out. 

We Want Pink Please

To fit with the relaxed feel of the day we decided on a cupcake tower. We had a bad experience with a cake maker who insisted it wasn’t possible to make pale pink buttercream icing! I eventually took my search elsewhere although it meant losing our deposit and I found the fantastic Yummy Little Cupcakes. Natalie did an incredible job of creating what we had envisioned with vanilla sponge cupcakes and ivory and pale pink buttercream adorned with iced flowers. I decorated the cake stand with beaded trim and had some of the cupcakes encased in laser cut holders and lace. We still wanted to have a cake to cut so we opted for a tiny jam sponge top tier from Marks and Spencers. 

Feels Like Home

We wanted to make the most of the beautiful grounds and gardens of Whatton House so our guests were entertained during the day with giant Jenga and croquet on the lawn, both of which were a big hit! We hired a DJ who played some mellow music throughout the day and then filled the night with our favourite Motown and Rock n’ Roll classics which ensured the dance floor remained packed! Everyone had a fantastic time dancing the night away and it gave us some of our best memories of the day.

For the first dance we chose Feels Like Home by Chantal Kreviazuk. Matt and I knew within the first few months of being together that we had found ‘the one’ so when I heard the song for the first time the words perfectly epitomised how I felt about him. I played it to him and it became ‘our song’ after that!

Homemade And Customised

I wanted to feature lots of homemade touches in our wedding to make the day extra special and personal to us. I hand made each guest’s name tag using luggage tags I’d punched with a heart shape and stamping them using a kit from Cox & Cox. I tied each tag to a napkin using lace and added a sprig of lavender which was the perfect finishing touch! It was lovely to see the guests had taken their tags home with them as a keepsake.

It’s true what they say, the day will pass you by so quickly so take a moment out with your husband and savour the magic. Matt and I snuck off to sit by the pond as the sun was setting just before our first dance and it was lovely to reflect on the day and enjoy each other’s company.

Brides Gown – Caldera by Enzoani at Dream Wedding Dress

Brides Earrings – Glitzy Secrets

Grooms Suit – Next

Reception Venue -Whatton House Gardens

Blooms – Floraldeco

Cakes – Yummy Little Cupcakes

Photography – Rachael Connerton

Is your main W-day look pretty pretty pretty?

You can see more of Amy and Matt’s W-day on Amy’s lovely beauty blog (and don’t blame me if you spend a long time on there looking at lipsticks..)

Big Whimsical Love

Charlotte xxx

We are embracing winter today at Rock My Wedding, but these gorgeous photographs from Big Bouquet are going to keep you cosy, wrapped up and warm.

Bibury Court Hotel provides the perfect seasonal backdrop for a day full to the brim of winter, a day full of warmth and of love, laughter and the odd surprise.

Home Or Away?

Our wedding was held on 10th of December 2011 at Bibury Court Hotel in The Cotswolds. We currently live in Bournemouth but my parents are from Cheltenham and I’ve always loved the Cotswolds so we decided to get married there. Originally we were going to go abroad because we were very keen to do something different, but we then decided that actually having a wedding in the UK could offer us this, with the benefit of the people we love being around us to help us celebrate.

Bibury court was the most beautiful venue, which we had exclusively. This gave our winter wedding a lovely cosy feel. Our wedding co-ordinator Catherine was exceptional throughout the whole process, as was the lovely assistant manager Sarah. The food by Nigel Goodwin, a new chef at the venue, was also delicious.

I had To Have It.

The dress was Eden by Jenny Packham. I tried on about 20 dresses before I saw this one and they all looked OK but when I saw this in Brides Magazine, I knew I had to have it! I bought it from Wedding days of Cheltenham who have a large range of Jenny Packham dresses and other designer gowns and were so fab throughout the whole process.

Jenny Knows Her Stuff!

I had a headband and earrings both by Jenny Packham that were designed to go with the dress. I wasn’t going to argue with Jenny on this one! I also wore a gold Italian good luck necklace (my something borrowed from my beautiful bridesmaid Becca).

Sky Scrapers.

I dragged my Mum and Dad around London for a whole day trying to find the perfect shoes. Originally I thought plain Louboutins, but none of them felt quite right. Just as we gave up looking we passed the Jimmy Choo Knightsbridge store and I saw my blingtastic dream shoes. They were pretty sky scraper to be honest, so I kicked them off when I rocked out to the band in the evening.

Relaxed And Simple.

My hair and make-up was done by the Cirencester Blushes team with Kate on make-up and Gary on hair. I wanted something really relaxed and simple so that the dress was the focus which I think they achieved.

Cream With Pearl And Diamante.

My Florist was the amazing Soraya at Ultraviolet Flowers in Southsea Portsmouth. I know it’s a long way to deliver flowers but she really is the best so it had to be her! The bouquets were all cream roses with pearl and diamante touches and my bouquet was held together with lace and a vintage brooch which Soraya had sourced. The bridesmaids were tied together with black silk which was a lovely contrast. The buttonholes were also cream roses.

The centrepieces were candelabras as we knew it would be dark during the breakfast and we wanted that cosy winter feel. They were also dressed with cream roses and were supplied by a local(ish) couple who run an amazing little candelabra hire company.

White And Cream.

For the maids and groomsmen we decided on a classy sophisticated white and cream jazzed up with a sprinkle of winter blingyness. We hired the groomsmens suits from Austin Reed and bought the bridemaids dresses from Wedding days of Cheltenham. The dress was really flattering on everyone (even my two heavily pregnant bridesmaids) and are avialble in a whole range of colours. The flower girls dresses are from Monsoon.

Design Your Own Suit.

Chris designed and wore a suit from aSuitThatFits.com. It was great fun designing his own suit and having it tailored, and the finished product was stunning, but we did have to make countless trips to and from London and Southampton because the tailoring wasn’t quite right. Also they were going to make the same suit for my dad but ran out of material which was a bit of pain. So he got his from Austin Reed which was lovely. If you are going to choose this option I would recommend that you leave plenty of time.

What A Bride Wants.

Originally we thought the best option was to get a photographer local to the venue in case it snowed. However we used a Bournemouth based company for our photo save the date cards called Big Bouquet who were so unbelievably good we thought we would risk the weather and choose them.

We loved Emma and Ian so much because they made us feel incredibly relaxed, and therefore the photos don’t look staged or forced. I am so happy with the finished product, I really feel that they captured the mood and feel of the occasion. They were also lovely, and very fun to have around on the day. The best bit about their work is the attention to detail. Emma constantly goes above and beyond to make sure that every part of the process is special for the bride and groom, from beautifully wrapping the save the dates, to updates on progress etc. You get the impression that having been a bride she really understands what a bride would ideally want and constantly provides that.

Fromage Heaven.

We don’t have much of a sweet tooth, however we both have a deep love for cheese so we were very keen on a cheesecake. We got this from The Cheese Works who delivered to the venue which was fab (no cheesy car smell). The groom’s friends are still talking about it now, they were all in fromage heaven.

Cake Tower.

We were worried that those who like a bit of ‘proper’ cake would be disappointed so we also went with a scrumptious cupcake tower from Angel Bakery. Catherine was a joy to deal with and combined small cupcakes, regular cupcakes, and one giant top cake. There was something for tiny and huge appetites.

Guilty Pleasures.

Chris was in charge on entertainment, and I have to admit that it was the highlight. During the drinks reception we had a blues duo called Freewheelin’ who we saw play in a pub Gretton and fell in love with. Also as a surprise Chris arranged for my very talented cousin Scott Cameron to play a surprise acoustic solo set which was very emotional. In the evening we had undeniably the greatest wedding band of all time The Reacharounds who specialise in mash-ups of guilty pleasures. They were unbelievably good and made sure that the party was rocking all night long. In between their sets we had a DJ Chris Shaw keeping the party going who was also fantastic.

Beautiful Words And Happy Memories.

We chose Islands by The XX for our first dance. No one had really head of it and it was tricky to dance to, but it didn’t matter because the words are beautiful and it reminded us of an amazing holiday driving through France.

Booze Based.

We both love Whisky so we named each table after one of our favourites, and then for the men we gave the miniature corresponding to the table name. This really helped to fuel the party atmosphere. The girls had handmade whisky truffles made by Pauline (the groom’s mother) which were very yummy and looked adorable.

Simple And Laid Back.

We kept the decor simple with lots of candles and cream rose petals and jazzed it up with some festive mistletoe and a beautiful tree table plan. The best thing about our wedding was that it all felt very laid back and allowed people to really relax and enjoy themselves. We had funny poems during the ceremony that reflected our personalities and relationship, the registrar accidentally said the best man’s name instead of the groom’s, we all drank lots of beautiful cocktails, and we kicked off our shoes and rocked out to the band.

A Special Day.

The key thing for the both of us was to make choices based on what we liked and reflected our personalities and likes as opposed to opting for the traditional, or what we thought would look good. It made for a very real, emotional and special day.

Venue Bibury Court Hotel

Dress Jenny Packham

Boutique Wedding days of Cheltenham

Shoes Jimmy Choo

Hair And Make-up Blushes

Blooms Ultraviolet Flowers

Tailor aSuitThatFits.com

Photography Big Bouquet

Band The Reacharounds

Cheese The Cheese Works

Cake Angel Bakery

When I spoke to Emma and Ian at Big Bouquet they said the surprise performance by guitar totting youngster Scott Cameron (a cousin of Joanne’s) really did bring the house down, one of those moments you’ll never forget. Also, apparently The Reacharounds can hold a pretty funky tune too!

I can’t leave you today without mentioning that dress – I LOVE it, and the first full width black & white portrait shot of Joanne with the fur could be a still from a movie. A classic movie.

Breathtaking stuff.

Adam.